Chapter 66. The Crimson Omen
Every student inside the forest stared up at the barrier surrounding them, completely bewildered. None of them understood why it had appeared, and none of them had yet grasped just how serious their situation truly was. But they understood one thing clearly enough: whatever was happening, it wasn’t heading anywhere good. Slowly, they began banding together, each team searching out others to form a larger group.
"Do you have any idea what’s going on?" a girl with braided hair asked a member of a nearby team, since no one in her own group knew anything. The boy she’d asked had blond hair, and he spread his hands helplessly, shaking his head.
"I have no idea what’s happening. I was hoping you’d have some answers. But looking at it, I don’t think this was made by our professors. Why would they do something like this?"
"I have no idea either. Does anyone in your team know anything? Because no one in ours has a clue," the girl asked.
"Same story over here. No one in our group knows what’s going on," said one of the blond boy’s teammates.
"Varon, students are gradually gathering in a clearing not far from here. I think we should head there. We might be able to find out what’s actually happening. Someone there might have answers." The one who spoke was a member of Varon’s team from the summoning department.
Varon nodded in agreement. "You’re right, Thfin. We should join them. We might find our answers there. What do you think, Lady Rosalin?" He turned to a girl with blue hair standing beside him.
"You’re right, Lord Varon. That would be our best course of action right now. Let’s go meet with them first, and we can assess our situation from there."
Varon smiled at Rosalin and said, "Let’s go."
The two teams merged and set off together toward the gathering point deep in the forest. Fortunately, it wasn’t far. They crossed the distance and arrived at the clearing, where they found that many other teams had already gathered, at least twenty in total.
There, many of them ran into friends they hadn’t seen all day. Varon spotted a classmate of his among the crowd and walked over.
"Lloyd, do you know anything about this barrier? And why would something like this appear at the end of today’s assessment?"
Lloyd was a tall boy with brown hair. Hearing Varon’s question, he glanced up at the barrier overhead before answering.
"I have no idea. What kind of barrier this is, almost no one here seems to know."
Varon wasn’t pleased to hear that answer; it left his question just as unresolved as before, and the uncertainty was slowly stirring fear inside him. Overhearing the exchange, a boy stepped over, short in height, with black hair.
"That’s right. We’ve asked around, and no one knows what kind of barrier this is. None of us have ever read about anything like it. But a few people here have made a guess about the situation. They think something might be happening outside the forest, and the professors may have sealed us in here to keep us safe from it."
"Trouble, right here at the academy? Can you even imagine that?" Varon said, his tone mocking. "Have you all forgotten who’s enrolled here as a student? Do you really think anyone would dare try anything with him around? What world are you all living in?"
Lloyd, standing beside Varon, turned to the black-haired boy.
"Nix, has Lord Necrotize’s team arrived here yet? A lot of the students would feel a lot better if he showed up."
Nix shook his head. "Lord Necrotize’s group hasn’t arrived yet. There are still a few teams unaccounted for out in the forest. They’ve probably noticed by now that everyone’s gathering here, so they’re likely making their way over. We should wait a bit longer. Once everyone’s arrived, we’ll probably get some answers from somebody. It’d be best if Lord Necrotize’s group got here first. There doesn’t seem to be a question in this world he wouldn’t have the answer to."
Lloyd nodded in agreement. But Varon let out a mocking laugh.
"You really think he’d bother answering our questions? Does he owe us anything? And even if we assume he would, who exactly is going to walk up and ask him? You think anyone here has the nerve to question him directly? Forget about getting an answer out of him. Realistically, we have three people left who might actually help us. Lady Elizabeth would surely know something, given the Imperial family’s knowledge. If not her, then Lord Carlos, for certain. House Hilbert is one of the greatest magic families in this empire, with a massive wealth of magical knowledge. And if not him, there’s my friend, Kline Holmes. He’s the fourth child of the Holmes family, another one of the empire’s great magic houses, right alongside House Hilbert. I’m sure they’d have some information on this."
Hearing this, Nix gave him a strange look before responding.
"Lady Elizabeth and Lord Carlos might have an answer, sure. But you actually think Kline would? He’s a good-for-nothing who spends his days at bars and brothels. A child of a magic family who somehow ended up enrolled in the alchemy department. You expect an answer out of him?"
Varon’s expression darkened at that. His voice turned sharp.
"Mind your tongue, Lord Nix. You are speaking about a child of a Duke family. You can get in trouble for such behavior. Take it as a friendly warning."
With that, Varon stormed off. Lloyd and Nix stood watching him go.
One by one, more students kept arriving, and each new arrival was met with the same question: what was happening? It was right then that a massive roar tore through the forest. An instant later, a colossal shockwave surged out from within the trees, tearing everything apart in its path. Entire trees bent and swayed under its force. By the time it reached the gathering point, nearly two hundred students were knocked clean off their feet. Several were left with cuts and scrapes from the fall.
Nix and Lloyd, standing together, were both thrown to the ground as well, though neither was hurt badly. Once the shockwave had passed over them, they slowly pushed themselves up, staring at each other in confusion. What had been a somewhat calm atmosphere only moments before suddenly gave way to panic. And right around that same time, everyone noticed the light around them beginning to shift. The warm golden glow of sunset that had lingered moments ago was slowly bleeding into a deep red. Nearly everyone looked up, and what they saw stripped away whatever composure they had left. The entire sky overhead had turned completely blood red, and nowhere in it could the sun still be seen.
Seeing this, even the students who had managed to stay relatively calm began to panic. The atmosphere around them had transformed entirely, and even those who’d been crying moments before had gone silent, too frightened now to even weep. As they stood staring up at the sky, a bush nearby suddenly began to shake violently. Normally, most of them would have kept their composure at something like this, but with everything else that had just happened, many of their nerves had already worn thin. None of them could guess what might emerge from it, or whether it would mean anything good for them.
Everyone’s eyes locked onto the shaking bush, its movement growing more violent by the second. And the more it shook, the more their fear mounted. At last, it burst into a frenzy of motion, and every student present readied their weapons and their spells, prepared to fight off whatever came out. But what emerged from the bush brought no new terror. If anything, it eased the fear of many gathered there. Because what stepped out wasn’t some monstrous threat at all. It was Elizabeth and Lyra’s group.
The moment they appeared, the students who had been gripped with fear felt some of it lift, and nearly everyone surged forward, surrounding Elizabeth and her team.
"Princess Elizabeth, you’ve finally made it! We’ve all been waiting for you."
Elizabeth looked out over the anxious crowd before her. A strange kind of relief lit up many of their faces at the sight of her. Before long, unable to contain himself any longer, one of the students blurted out a question.
"Princess Elizabeth, do you know what’s going on here? Why has the sky turned red like this? And what is this massive barrier?"
Hearing the question, Elizabeth gave him a solemn look before turning her gaze up toward the sky.
"I don’t know what this barrier is, and I have no idea why it’s here. But I do know something about the red sky."
"What is it?" they asked, desperate for an answer.
"In old legend, a red sky is an omen of chaos. It means something terrible is coming, something beyond anything we can imagine."
Hearing this, a chill ran through nearly everyone present. Instinctively, they all looked back up at the sky, and the sight of that ominous crimson expanse sent a wave of fear rippling through the crowd.
And just as they stood there staring up, another bush behind them began to shake violently, and this shaking felt like nothing ordinary at all.